The main objective of the Flight Research and Testing Institute is to ensure that aircraft meet the performance and safety standards required by the FAB.
Air Force Agency – Source: IPEV, by Captain Guilherme and Lieutenant Gabrielle Varela
Subordinate to the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology (DCTA), the Institute of Flight Research and Testing (IPEV), based in São José dos Campos (SP), has the main function of carrying out flight tests, training specialized personnel in this area and conducting applied research to develop scientific and technological solutions in the field of Aerospace Power. The Institute’s team is made up of highly trained engineers, pilots and technicians who use advanced methods, techniques and technologies to test and validate the capabilities of Brazilian Air Force (FAB) aircraft currently in use or to be used in the future.
Last month, IPEV celebrated its 18th anniversary, which is very symbolic, but the activity carried out by our Flight Test pilots and engineers goes back a long way. Alberto Santos Dumont, the Father of Aviation and Patron of Brazilian Aeronautics, 118 years ago, in his odyssey in search of the development of heavier-than-air aircraft, carried out the first flight test in the history of the world and kept in his achievements courage, audacity and, above all, scientific and technical rigor. Inspired by Santos Dumont’s achievements, the flight tests (or test flights) carried out by IPEV represent the quest for knowledge and the exploration of the unknown in the field of aviation.
In all cases, without exception, an aircraft, a system associated with an aircraft or even a weapon goes from technical drawing to design and then to manufacture as a prototype, with the aim of solving some problem (use of less polluting fuel, electric engine, greater aerodynamic efficiency, greater range, etc.). ). However, the theoretical requirements, which are guaranteed by mathematical models and high-performance computer simulations, are not always consistent with operational reality or, in other words, “in practice, the theory is different”, which is why testing equipment is more than necessary, it is mandatory.
The importance of the IPEV is multifaceted, but all the activities it carries out converge towards National Sovereignty. In other words, it ensures independence to pursue the nation’s interests in the area of Flight Testing without outside interference, since it has one of the very few Test Flight Schools in the world, which has ensured that this capability has been permanent for Brazil since the 60s.
“Another facet of Flight Tests is the exploration of the functioning/operation of a particular aircraft, system or armament that has already been manufactured in series in the country itself or acquired from a manufacturer in another state. In this way, the versatility of a product can be assessed and validated, expanding the range of missions that the equipment can perform and allowing for greater proficiency in the equipment, in order to fulfill the FAB’s constitutional mission,” explained the Director of the IPEV, Colonel Marcelo Bittencourt Vautier Franco, highlighting the challenge of having its pilots fly the Air Force’s most modern projects, such as the KC-390 Millennium and the F-39 Gripen fighter.
In this context, the main objective of the Institute for Research and Flight Tests is to ensure that aircraft meet the performance and safety standards required by the FAB, so that the Operational Squadrons spread throughout Brazil can carry out their institutional missions in complete safety. IPEV thus seeks to contribute to maintaining the sovereignty of Brazilian airspace and to national integration, in its first conception phase: Research, Development and Innovation.
In terms of public value, Brazil has a group of men and women with critical knowledge who ensure that the airspace is permeated by safe machines that fulfill the objectives sovereignly determined by the nation. In other words, that there is sovereignty in Flight Tests, extrapolating this potential into capacity for each FAB aircraft, since, before all the missions take place, IPEV has been there to test the Air Force aircraft of the present and the future.
“Above all, Flight Tests symbolize the courage to face the unknown and the relentless pursuit of excellence, reflecting both the scientific method and overcoming one’s own limits for the sake of Brazilian Aerospace Power,” added the IPEV Director.
Photos: IPEV